Speaking to The Daily Record, Dr Alistair Moffat, boss of genetic testing company ScotlandsDNA, said: “We think red hair in Scotland, Ireland and the north of England is adaptation to the climate. We do not get enough sun and have to get all the vitamin D we can.

“If it was to get less cloudy and there was more sun, there would be fewer people carrying the gene."

There may be a glimmer of hope for our flame-haired friends though, as Joshua Akey, associate professor of genome sciences at University of Washington, has dismissed claims that ginger hair is dying out: "There is no scientifically compelling basis to the claim that redheads will become extinct in 100 years," he told MSN News.